Assembly lies to build sex defense, ex-aide says

Lance Williams, OF THE EXAMINER STAFF

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, August 6, 1996

SACRAMENTO - The California Assembly defends itself in sex harassment cases by trumping up evidence that will portray victims as either sexually promiscuous or mentally unstable, a former legislative staffer told a special Assembly committee.

"The game is called "Nuts and Sluts,' " said Debora Simpson, who obtained a $59,500 settlement last year after alleging in a lawsuit that she had been sexually assaulted by a top aide to former Assemblyman Rusty Areias, D-Salinas.

"They figure if they work hard enough, they can make any woman look terrible," Simpson said Monday. "They were running around in a big frantic attempt to get dirt on me, and when that didn't work, they just made things up."

Simpson's bitter testimony was the focus of a two-hour hearing held by a special subcommittee set up by Speaker Curt Pringle, R-Garden Grove, to get a handle on sexual harassment in the Assembly.

The subcommittee was established this spring after problems surfaced with the Assembly's so-called "zero tolerance" anti-harassment policy established under former Speaker Willie Brown, now The City's mayor. The panel has met twice in an effort to work out improved procedures.

Says she was blacklisted

Monday, legislators listened as Simpson testified that she had been blacklisted from working in the Capitol and had been made the target of vicious and false rumors. She said the Assembly had hired a private investigator to look into her sex life because she had complained.

"I was the victim," she said. "Did they hire a private eye to wreak havoc on the life of the harasser? Did they blacklist him or (subject him to) humiliation?

"No - he was given a huge salary increase by Willie L. Brown (while) I suffered the destruction of my personal life and my career."

Simpson testified that she had gone to Assembly personnel officer Lorraine King in 1994 after Simpson's boss, longtime Democratic political operative John Barry Wyatt, had allegedly forced his way into her home and pinned her to the couch for 45 minutes of groping.

Wyatt denied wrongdoing, contending that the incident was the result of a date that got out of hand.

Former Rules Committee lawyer Nina Ryan, who investigated the case for the Assembly, has said she conducted ethical and thorough probes in all the cases she handled.

Whispering campaign

Initially, Simpson said, King and Ryan expressed sympathy for her and vowed she could keep her job.

But soon after that, Simpson said, she was transferred to what she called a demeaning clerical position in the Assembly typing pool and found herself stuck, unable to land another job with an Assembly member.

After she filed her lawsuit, Simpson said, she found herself targeted both by an intrusive Assembly probe and what she called a vicious whispering campaign.

At one point, she said, an investigator hired by Assembly lawyers "contacted my ex-boyfriend trying to find out if I was sexually promiscuous."

Later, she said, an Assembly investigator contacted the ex-boyfriend and suggested that lawyers would call him as a witness at trial "and ask (him) questions to imply I was promiscuous."

"They said the questions would not be admissible, but they would ask them to plant a doubt in the jury's mind," Simpson said.

Explosive allegations

Assembly lawyers also subpoenaed her medical records and unsuccessfully sought records from her gynecologist. Later, at a mediation hearing on her case, Simpson said Assembly lawyers made devastating - and false - allegations against her and said they intended to bring them up if the case went to trial.

Simpson said the lawyers accused her of being mentally unstable. They said Simpson had performed a degrading sex act with her former boyfriend and was sexually obsessed with one of her children, she testified. All the assertions were lies, Simpson said, but she charged the Assembly used them anyway to whipsaw her into accepting a low settlement of her complaint.

"This is what happens when they don't have a line of men to testify that they slept with you," Simpson said.

"They go after your relationship with your children."

The legislators who listened to Simpson said they were troubled by her story.

"As far as I'm concerned, she was blackballed because she spoke up," said Assemblywoman Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo.

Subcommittee Chairwoman Marilyn Brewer, R-Irvine, told Simpson she was sorry for what had happened.

"I truly appreciate you being here today," Brewer said.

"You were more than maligned, and on behalf of my colleagues, I apologize."

Assemblywoman Kerry Mazzoni, D-Novato, said she was sorry, too, and then noted that none of the male legislators on the subcommittee had bothered to show up.

Shortly after that, Jim Battin, R-Palm Desert, and David Knowles, R-Cameron Park, arrived. The other member of the committee, John Burton, D-San Francisco, who chaired the Rules Committee until the GOP takeover last year, was absent.&lt;